Re: So I have to ask, are you talking about the LG enV Touch, or the LG Chocolate Touch?

The first phone that I would argue couldn't be blocked would be the Android phones. The OS offloads some of its processing to the Internet, and the phone is built around cloud computing. A block on an Android phone would be more like buying the boat in my earlier reference with a solid steel block welded into the space where the engine would go.

Over the years, I've seen these phones go from Palm planners stuck on a crappy (Kyocera) phone to today's Droids and the like. If the majority customer base ultimately did not want data and blocked it, or demanded a change, we wouldn't be selling phones this way. Enough people wanted it or allowed it to cause the device market to shift in its favor.

As for older phone, the OS on something like the 6900 was programmed to ping the Internet at certain intervals during the day. Once the phone opens to channel to the network, it pings the network every so often to ensure a connection. And as such, if you accidentally hit Internet Explorer, or even so much as received an MMS, the phone seemed to have the freedom to ping the network.

Now, I've heard every argument on this. Some say it's simply the design of the device. Some say Verizon and Microsoft purposely programmed it that way. Some way Microsoft programmed it, but Verizon knowingly let it slide. I'm more apt to think it was simply the way it was programmed. Windows Mobile was full of code dating back to PocketPC, when such a connection might have been needed. Still, we may never know for sure.

Ultimately, though, the decision to require data is a business-related one.